DRILLING & COMPLETIONS PHOTO: PUMPWELL SOLUTIONS PUMPWELL PHOTO: DRILLING & COMPLETIONS pump off many wells that other artifi cial lift ARTIFICIAL LIFT TECHNOLOGY methods cannot. “Th e older styles of jet pump were typ- ically set up so all wellbore liquids and gas MEETS INCREASING CHALLENGES came through the jet pump. While jet pumps are an excellent multi-phase pump, Source Rock is well aware that as you approach OF UNCONVENTIONAL WELLS pumped-off conditions, the volumetric ex- pansion of a gas phase will require more and more jet pump horsepower. By Carter Haydu “By installing concentric-tubing jet- pump completions, gas is produced up the he shadoof was once the pinnacle of ever before that the operator know when casing annulus, and the jet pump horse- artifi cial lift technology, moving water problems occur in the well and then make power is focused on lifting the wellbore Tfrom its shallow reservoir to another the necessary corrections. “When you have liquids and solids. Th ere is no sense in using nearby locale with relative ease on the part precise rod-string control, it is amazing the the jet pump to pump gas because the gas of its ancient Egyptian operator. things you can do. You can perform subtle, will fl ow to surface on its own.” Flash forward a few thousand years and small manipulations to the speeds and ac- For Nav Dhunay, president and chief ex- contemporary successor lift technologies celerations of how you actuate this pump ecutive offi cer at PumpWELL Solutions, the in the North American oil and gas sector and actually resolve issues.” latest innovations in the artifi cial lift space are basically performing the same task as SilverJack is Zedi’s hydraulic rod-pumping have little to do with the actual, physical their BCE counterparts (moving valuable solution. It consists of a hydraulic mechanics of the lifts themselves, but rather resources from point A to point B), only cylinder that does the same thing as a involve the rise of the Internet of Th ings now they are pumping hydrocarbons from conventional pumpjack, but with far more (IoT) application on the technology—be it increasingly challenging, deep formations precision, especially when matched with a a sucker rod, electric submersible pumps that require not only vertical trajectory but sophisticated optimization controller and (ESPs) or progressive cavity pumps (PCPs). horizontal as well. remote access. “With the cost of sensors going down, we “When you lay them on their sides, there “When you determine where plugging are starting to see clients increase the num- are a lot of strange things that can happen is in a pump, then you can go down to the ber of sensors they use to gather and protect with the workings of the downhole pumps,” point where plugging occurs and move the data,” he says. “Th at is really one of the says Evan West, director and marketing slightly above that,” West says. “You short- biggest shifts, along with maturing analytics manager at Zedi. en your stroke length, and if you stroke and ubiquitous Internet access. We are cer- “In addition, with a pump lying on its side, really quickly and don’t go into the point tainly on the verge of seeing a sudden jump there is often gas associated with oil produc- where the pump is plugged, then you can in the number of [machine-to-machine] tion, and gas interference either causes or just visualize it swashing and aerating the devices out there.” could cause issues intermittently with the fluid column.” Operational effi ciency is the predominant pumping performance. As well, a higher per- He adds, “We have had several customers way the IoT improves production on wells centage of sand is now involved because you tell us that they have cleaned out a pump by that use artifi cial lift, according to Dhunay, get fl owback from the fracturing process.” using this precise rod-string control, being as it enables remote monitoring to maximize Because of horizontal drilling and able to quickly manipulate where and how production by changing the speed of the completion challenges on sucker-rod pump- fast they are stroking.” stroke in real time and provides preventative ing, he notes, it is more important now than maintenance indicators. JET SET “You can imagine fi ne-tuning a [variable At Calgary-based service company Source frequency drive] that might be on the sucker Rock Energy Partners the primary focus rod, PCP or ESP to make sure you are getting is the use and advancement of jet-pump maximum oil production while at the same technology for artifi cial lift and well servic- time not overloading the device. Th ere are ing needs. Jet pumps operate by creating a lots of benefi ts there.” downhole venturi eff ect, allowing the pumps Capturing and analyzing mass amounts of to lift wellbore fl uid simply by pumping a data collected on equipment also off ers power- power fl uid stream through the jet pump. ful enhancements to the artifi cial lift, Dhunay “With a dual tubing fl ow path, we simply says, providing “actionable insights” that pump fl uid from surface through a downhole improve value, yield and safety in the fi eld. jet pump venturi, which creates very eff ective “We think this will be the next mover suction,” says Kelly Falk, president and chief for Big Data—as we start to see more data executive offi cer. scientist and analyst jobs come into this While previous jet pumps tended to be industry, companies will be looking to apply very ineffi cient and had a limited drawdown, that knowledge and really convert it into according to Falk, his company has achieved something meaningful that will help them much higher effi ciency performance and can make educated decisions.” NEW TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | MAY 2015 25 DRILLING & COMPLETIONS He adds, “Th e days of the easy oil are sort of gone. What we are now dealing with are unconventional plays, predominantly, and that means it becomes trickier for producers to get oil out and even more expensive, and so what we need to do is look at technologies such as Big Data and IoT to help combat that.” BIG DATA AND THE IOT PumpWELL not only captures data from sen- sors on artifi cial lift devices and provides real- time analysis of the well to help operators analyze the information and make intelligent decisions, but the company’s analytic engine can also make recommendations based on certain data patterns, Dhunay says. “Th at is another great part of our in- novation: if we can avoid people having to make decisions and have robots essentially EXTENDED LIFE making those decisions with a second pair of Developed using computational uid dynamics to model stage geometry and architecture, eyes providing validation, operations move Schlumberger’s REDA Continuum ESP is a mixed- ow stage pump engineered for unconventional forward a lot faster while simultaneously ow behaviour and challenging environments. minimizing downtime and workovers, which reduces operational costs.” Th is summer, PumpWell will launch new connection, then they have visibility into He adds, “Th e fi rst step is always the pattern-seeking software with algorithms their wells,” West says, adding that his lift selection, where we spend a lot of time designed to capture and use data to make company is looking to online cloud-based making sure the artifi cial lift accounts for decisions in real time, increasing the amount technology for its supervisory control and proper life cycle of the well.” According to of oil produced. data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Mathiravedu, the next step is to optimize the “Th is does not require a lot of handling “That is really what Zedi brought to the selected artifi cial-lift method, fi guring out and labour-intensive duties around the artifi - forefront in 2000—more of a cloud-based how to conduct surveillance and trouble- cial lift,” Dhunay says. “Th e other aspect of it solution as opposed to traditional SCADA shoot eff ectively. is the actual IoT. Right now, the price of sen- systems, which are fairly locked down with “Finally, and very key to this whole thing, sors is coming down but remains expensive visibility as to who uses it and who sees is switching the predictive diagnostics. Th ere enough whereby companies can’t quite aff ord the wells.” may be a case where you must change an to make those capital investments up front. According to West, the future of data ESP from a higher size to a lower size or else “We are looking to change that model. analytics involves increased layers of soft- an ESP failure could happen, or you may We are building sensors that are substan- ware intelligence, identifying exactly where need to change to a rod lift. We don’t want tially less expensive than anything else in the issues occur and what the operator should any deferred production, and so that is what market today, and we will be able to utilize do about them. He says, “So it is about the predictive modelling would do.” those sensors all over the pump jack. Cost analytics and how you take data to informa- Commercialized in the fourth quarter of will no longer be a prohibiting factor.” tion to knowledge to wisdom and how you 2014, the REDA Continuum unconventional According to Dhunay, if remote sensors make it faster for the customers.” extended-life ESP is the latest off ering in can confi rm a well is pumping and fl uid is Schlumberger’s artifi cial-lift suite, providing fl owing, then the need to physically visit the PREDICTIVE DIAGNOSTICS an extended operating range, high effi ciency site is greatly reduced.